tat also may have a different objective in this comic from that in the older one. as i recall, the older one was a one-off. it serves to illuminate monique's character, yes, but it is also a strong reaction to current events - and as a one-off, it could be freer.
the current one seems intended to comment on the action - although as has been pointed out, we can't be sure which action it is commenting on..._________________aka: neverscared!

yes, its true there should be some effort when writing a character who is good at something that youre not. but you're obviously not going to be great at it all of the time. and i don't think there is no effort here. like, wtf, it might not be the most fantastic thing ever but that doesn't really mean he didn't try. we can't really prove whether he did or didn't.

the strip you are linking is from a totally different era. like, 14 years ago. a persons writing style, and their thoughts & opinions can change and evolve a LOT over the course of 14 years. so yeah, what he writes today is going to be different from what he wrote then. personally, i don't really care for the writing style of that strip and prefer the one from yesterdays. c'est la vie. people arent always going to feel the same way about certain things.

theres another thing to consider too: technically hes not even writing her as a beat poet anymore. he's writing her as just a singer now. so this isnt beat poetry, or slam poetry. its just her singing a song. so, ok, this might not be great beat poetry, but theyre pretty alright lyrics for a song. like, obviously not The Best Lyrics ever... but if you get someone talented to sing it, it'd sound alright.

I see nothing that tells me this is a song as opposed to a poetry slam.

I see nothing that tells me this is a song as opposed to a poetry slam.

i am not really in the mood to go looking for them all but there are various strips (a sunday strip or two, plus one with minique freaking out because nique winked at her) that make it clear that music is playing to accompany her voice, so while, yeah, nothing in this strip really says "this is a song" (except for the fact they are Very Obviously Song Lyrics) those previous strips, along with the way her more recent work has been written, clearly implies that she's a singer now. so._________________

I see nothing that tells me this is a song as opposed to a poetry slam.

i am not really in the mood to go looking for them all but there are various strips (a sunday strip or two, plus one with minique freaking out because nique winked at her) that make it clear that music is playing to accompany her voice, so while, yeah, nothing in this strip really says "this is a song" (except for the fact they are Very Obviously Song Lyrics) those previous strips, along with the way her more recent work has been written, clearly implies that she's a singer now. so.

Considering the crossover between songs and poems, I don't think your snarky "Very Obviously Song Lyrics" thing is accurate or necessary.

Since the question of whether or not 'Nique sings as well as recites has inexplicably become significant, I checked the archives and, although obvious keywords like song, music, and instruments yielded little or nothing of relevance, I did find this one:

To be fair, the lack of musical notes in this most recent strip would seem to imply that she is not singing on this occasion. However, in this pair of strips, although 'Nique performs sans musical notes, Seymour nonetheless derides her performance as devil music.

I'm kind of fairly sure that 'Nique has demonstrably sung on stage on other occasions too but I at present lack time and inclination to conduct additional research. Maybe tomorrow. I once compiled all of the strips in which 'Nique recited and/or sang on stage (as of that moment in time) within a single thread but that was long ago and far away and I have no idea how to find it again. So it goes.